Sure, so ban when they change the algorithm. But for some political powers even a current algorithm is a threat, because they cannot control it (like they could do with the local media).

But how would the gov't know they changed the algorithm? It's not like TikTok sends newsletters to the House of Commons.

They could request an audit (and ban if tiktok refuses). They could monitor the results they are getting in the recommendations based on specific list of criteria. They could propose moderation rules tiktok would have to follow (kinda similar to how it operates in China - they have a different algorithm there). They could request tiktok servers to be in Canada.

I think you're misreading my comment. I find the threat real and probably already in action. My key point is that hard-banning a popular resource in a country without a DPI-like firewall is just a national security theater with no effect.

Take an example from Russia - instead of banning youtube, they just make it crawl and stutter, so fully controlled rutube/dzen/etc start to seem more viable, but it's not too bad to decide to go full VPN. Non-technical people don't even realize that it happens and write it off as some youtube-related network issues.

Of course that is an awful attack on freedom, but you can get real or get rekt.